AMG exhaust fitment on W124 E500

[talbir]

Fitted up an ORIGINAL W124 AMG rear box to my E500 a couple of weeks back.

The box came off a 300CE AMG and is in perfect condition. Price new is approx 700 squidders. I managed to nab the box for £100 !!

It's a twin exit, with twin chrome AMG tailpipes - the tailpipes are twin angled rectangular and as with all original AMG tailpipes, they are aerofoils, so that exhaust fumes aer directed away from the car and not straight up onto the bumper and bodywork.

The box was not quite a straight fitment. It's almost identical to the stock rear box, but the angle of the single pipe, where it meets the centre box, is different. This is fixed by using a small length of similar diameter stainless steel pipe to marry up the AMG box pipe to the centre box.

The other modification required to the AMG box is the mounting points. Although the AMG box has IDENTICAL mounting points to the 500E stock box, if you mount the AMG box from it's original mounting points (the ones just in front of therear bumper) then the chrome tailpipes will stick out far too much. It works on the 300E AMG as the AMG cars have skirted bumpers and the tailpipes get hidden to the right extent. But I wanted NO change to my rear bumper - so I moved the box further in and had new mounting points added to the box and a new stopper added above, to prevent the tailpipes hitting the bumper on bouncing, as per original design) and that's it.

Total time to fit was only 45 mins.

The MOST important issue for me was that there was NO modification to the car underframe or rear bumper - absolutely none at all. All mods required to fit the AMG box were made to the box itself.

And the other crucial requirement was NO change in volume or tone - and by luck, the volume and tone are absolutely unchanegd from the stock 500E box. For me, the 500E represents the highest standard of luxury and speed, travelling in refinement.

The part no embossed on the AMG box is : HWA 124 490 1115 and also has the engraving 'AMG SN05'.

I spent so much time deciding on what rear exhaust/tailpipes to have and eventually decided on the AMG box. The best thing is the '///AMG' emblem and it of course matches my AMG 2-piece wheels. Moreover, AMG seem to design their exhausts to compliment the cars perfectly. The twin rectangular tailpipes look PERFECT on the W124 rear - they marry up with it perfectly.

Here's a link here to pics :


http://www.printroom.com/ViewAlbum.asp?userid=hakkinen&album_id=192395


talbir

 

[Mikesmerc]

Very nice Talbir. 100quid, for nothing. Thought the AMG box would enhance the exhaust note. Would you rate the 500E above your 500SEC?
Regards
Mike

 

[talbir]

The AMG exhaust would make a difference if I removed the baffler exhaust just before it.

Not only is the 500E better than the 500SEC AMG that I have, it's also better than the 560 SEC !

The only thing better about the SEC is the looks - other than that, the 500E wins every other contest hands down. The 500E has better engineering, better handling and better performance.

The w126 weighs almost 200kg's more than the 500E and has appaling handling characteristics - and due to the weight and base frame, there's very little that can be done to improve it. The stock 500E will eat any stock 560SEC for breakfast - in a 0-60 and on a twisting country road. the combination of the M119, 722.370 tranny and 2.82 differential are breathtaking.

I was very sceptical when buying the 500E - use to think it was nothing more than a W124 with a V8. But it is a totally different car to a any other W124. Not just in terms of performance, but refinement, engineerign and handling. The 500E has over 3000 different parts to the 300E it's based on.

Even in classic car circles, the 560SEC whilst becoming a classic, the 500E is still a few notches above in that respect too. Being the last handbuilt Mercedes and the involvement of Porsche, make it a very special car.

And somehow, LHD feels so correct. The only difficulties are joining motorways and entrance to shopping precints where you need to press the button to get the barrier to lift.....otherwise LHD is better in every way. Especially when yuo park your car, at least one steps out onto the pavement and not oncoming traffic !

 

[Mikesmerc]

I must agree with you in that I thought that it was just a v8 stuck in one of their run of the mill 4 doors, obviously not. Were they ever sold as RHD and I would assume that they are quiet rare as I have never seen one over here. Bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing, which would attract me to such a model. Will have to make do with my old 230E and increasingly annoying 560.
Looks like your running out of garage space Talbir
Regards
Mike

 

[mjtray]

Never sold in RHD unfortunately, although prior to the E500's being made by Mercedes, AMG produced a handful of RHD W124 conversions with 5.0 and 5.6 M117 V8's producing 340 and 360 BHP respectively (only 2 ever came to the UK out of a total production run of 23 cars)....a 6.0, 380 bhp version was also produced and these mainly went to the US.

These engines were fitted with AMG's Quad Cam Heads and were also used in the Sauber Le Man cars in the 80's

Unlike the E500's the AMG's were not fitted with speed limiters and in its day the AMG Hammer (as they were known) was the fastest 4 door saloon in the world with a 6.0 being clocked at 186mph.....even the 5.0 managed 165. They also had faster in gear acceleration than a Ferrari Testarosa, Lambo, Porsche Turbo etc

Its as a result of these cars that Mercedes went on to produce their own version, ie the E500 (320bhp) and also led to Mercedes buying AMG.

Its interesting to note that in 1986 the donor car for the 5.6 Hammer was a 300E costing @ £23k.....the AMG engine then cost a further £25k, suspension, gearbox, wheels, rear Diff and body mods then cost a further £14k on top of that.

Not surprising that they only sold 2 cars over here, the cost of the car made it a truely exclusive motor!.......awesome motor.

 

[talbir]

Slight correction to the above - the E500 produces 326bhp, same as the SL 500 with the M119. However, the E500 has modified intake runners, and produces torque of 354 lb ft, some 22 lb ft more than the stock M119 engine found in the SL500.

Like the AMG versions, the E500 engine is also quad cam, 8-Cyl and 4 valves per cylinder. The E500 also has modified suspension, wider front and rear track, as well as the 722.370 tranny and 2.82 rear diff.

Although the AMG W124's were fast, they were modifications of the M117 engine. The M117 is pre-historic compared to the M119.

AMG DID infact do a variation on the E500 - they produced a 6.0l E500.

The E500, with speed limiter removed, has a top speed of 175mph. That's faster than the AMG 5.0l version of the W124.

Only 29 500E's / E500's were officially sold in the UK by MB dealerships. Mine is one of them. The official UK cars can be recognised by 3 things : side repeaters on the front fenders, MPH speedo AND the logbook. Any car that is imported will have this clearly stated on the V5. Finally, MB can verify whether the car was official UK sold and registered.

I use to think that the E500 being LHD was unfortunate too - until after I bought it. Hand on heart, LHD is SO much more proper, correct and easier to drive. Perhaps the UK should catch up with most of the world and become LHD ! Moreover, Mercedes cars and any other German car for that matter is ALWAYS better LHD.....because they are initially built to be LHD. When they swap the steering over, the ergonomics are never the same.

Finally, MB bought AMG in 1999 - nothing to do solely with the AMG W124's, but more the whole spectrum of their modified cars. And the E500 was not intended as a rival for any of the AMG cars - more as an answer to the BMW M5. Discreet, but super performance.

AMG today are not the same as they were 10-20 years ago - back then their cars were truly personalized examples. Like the AMG W124's, W126's and W107's. those cars had a completely unique personality.

The E500, being the last of the coachbuilt Mercedes, is unique. It's history and the strong link with Porsche, make it even more intriguing. The E500 was a joint venture between Mercedes and Porsche - each E500 took 18 days to build, making several trips from MB Stuttgart to Zuffenhausen.

Whilst AMG cars are glorious, an E500 is simply unique - a handbuilt supercar.

 

[mjtray]

Talbir,

Don't get me wrong the E500 is a monster of a car and I certainly wasn't trying to play down its performance...far from it.

I suppose what I was trying to imply was that prior to the E500, AMG was making a range of W124 conversions that are not that well known, due to the fact that only 23 cars were made in total for worldwide consumption of which 2 were sold in the UK in RHD.....as you say of the E500...these were handbuilt supercars.

It is fair to say that Mercedes saw what could be done by AMG with the W124 and used the idea as a basis for their own E500.....in some ways I suppose you could say that they productionised the car for mainstream consumption and used a standard production engine that made the car easier to service, maintain and cheaper to produce.

The AMG versions were pretty highly strung, with bespoke Gleeson rear diffs running 2.44 or 2.62 ratio's, S-Class auto gearboxes with AMG Valve bodies and depending on how you drove the car you had a choice of running the car on two different types of spark plugs, one set for out and out performance, another set for day to day driving, and the tappets were solid rather than hydraulic which needed resetting every 10,000 miles or so, all of which precluded the cars from being serviced by a standard Benz dealer.

The other thing that made the AMG versions such a rarified beast was the price, as I mentioned the first 5.6 version cost £62k in 1986!!!, the 5.0's costing slightly less at £52k in 1985, whereas the 6.0 versions topped out at £100k or $170 at the end of production.

I've managed to lay my hands on a couple of road tests from the 80's on the Hammer and they make facinating reading. I've just read the 5.0 and 5.6 road tests and I got some of my facts wrong....the 5.0 cars were geared to top out at 183mph, whereas the 5.6's were geared for 186 but faster acceleration. The in gear acceleration was impressive to say the least with the 5.0 covering the 50-70 increments in just 3.0seconds whereas the 5.6's were covering this in 2.8and covering the 0-100 in 12.6 and 0-120 in 18.3seconds.

I would love to see the stats on an E60....now I bet they would make impressive reading!!!

 

[GrahamC230K]

Nice one. Looks really nice. I have a AMG backbox from a CLK430 on my C230K. Guess what? I only paid £100 too!! Only just stopped grinning about that deal!

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=8898